Sopela

Sopela, also known as Sopelana, is a town and municipality located in the province of Biscay, in the autonomous community of Basque Country, northern Spain. The town is roughly 820 hectares in area, located in the comarca Mungialdea on the north east side of Bilbao and due east of the Nervión river estuary. In the municipality, other former towns like Larrabasterra are now merged to make Sopela larger. The population is 11,185 people, as recorded in the 2003 census. Thriving expansion of the town puts this number to well over 13,000 people. The area of Sopela is situated among green hills and beaches. This makes it a very attractive suburb of Bilbao, with a short commute of 35 minutes on the metro.HistorySince the late 1980s, the population of Sopelana has continued to grow and currently has 13.000 citizens. During the industrialization the citizens moved to the urban centres that were more crowded but from that decade on this tendency has reversed. Sopelana has become a residential municipality well communicated with bigger municipalities and with Bilbao. It was at first an eminently turistic destination, where the properties and house owners only moved to spend summer holidays but it has turned into a residential town. At the moment, it is one of the village's with the highest per capita income of the state.